Stephen, I think this is quite excellent. I like the angles and the color out of the camera looks very nice. What color profile where you using? Also, what frame rate?

Thanks.

I like it too. After the sort of mixed reviews so far of this camera, it's nice to see that it is sharper than my current camera - a big factor for me.

How did you edit the piece - at first I thought 1080p60 in a 24p timeline, but it looks slowed down more than that.

Stephen, I think this is quite excellent. I like the angles and the color out of the camera looks very nice. What color profile where you using? Also, what frame rate?

Thanks.

I am using the PP4, which is the default color profile out of the box. It seems to be the truest to color for my color blind eyes :)

It is shot at 60fps, played back at 24. I did slow down a a couple of the shots a little more in post. As well as speeding up the first shot back to normal speed. It was all shot using the S&Q motion feature.

I like it too. After the sort of mixed reviews so far of this camera, it's nice to see that it is sharper than my current camera - a big factor for me.

How did you edit the piece - at first I thought 1080p60 in a 24p timeline, but it looks slowed down more than that.

All the shots were taken on that time line, but you are correct. I did slow down a couple to see how the video would hold up. Seems pretty good to me.

Stephen,
Which codec did you shoot this in: XAVC or AVCHD??
Also, I'm curious what editing software you are using.

Stephen,
Which codec did you shoot this in: XAVC or AVCHD??
Also, I'm curious what editing software you are using.

XAVC-L 50mbps

I am using Adobe Premier Pro Creative Cloud to edit. I import the files directly into premier pro without any issues.

This X70 post could be useful to some of you.

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-xavc-xdcam-camera-systems/525221-pxw-x70-dsc-chart-vectorscope-2.html#post1864117

Paul

XAVC-L 50mbps

I am using Adobe Premier Pro Creative Cloud to edit. I import the files directly into premier pro without any issues.

Are you dragging and dropping the files from the camera card to your HDD, or using transfer software like Sony Catalyst Browse- or something else?
Also, within PPro CC, exactly what sequence preset are you using for the XAVC timeline?
I'm finding that I can work with the XAVC footage in PPro CC 2014, but everything seems a bit haphazard & off the cuff.
It's like Sony doesn't really have the infrastructure in place yet for this codec.

Robert,

When using Adobe Premiere Pro CC you can just copy the MXF files from the SDXC card directly to your HDD using a cardreader and import these in Adobe without any problems.

Gabor

Are you dragging and dropping the files from the camera card to your HDD, or using transfer software like Sony Catalyst Browse- or something else?
Also, within PPro CC, exactly what sequence preset are you using for the XAVC timeline?
I'm finding that I can work with the XAVC footage in PPro CC 2014, but everything seems a bit haphazard & off the cuff.
It's like Sony doesn't really have the infrastructure in place yet for this codec.

I have copied the MXF files to my hard drive and accessed them from there. I have also pulled them right off the card using a card reader without any issues.

I'm just getting started with PP CC, I downloaded the trail version since I couldn't work with the XAVC in my other software. I am apparently just using the default settings.

I have tried importing and dragging all flavours of XAVC files into various NLEs. With the 230mbit XAVC-I MXF files from the F5 / F55 I have no issues. Also no issues with the 8-bit XAVC-S files that are wrapped as MP4s such as those from the Sony A7S. Where the problem appears to lie for some of us is with the newer 50-mbit XAVC-L MXF files from the PXW-X70. It is these Long GOP files that are proving very hard to read. I have tried reading them with the latest update of Premiere CC and Avid on Mac and Vegas and Avid on PC and all to no avail.

Upon analysis of earlier XAVC MXF files I find that all previous iterations have been written with Sony's writing and library application called

'Sony util 1.0'

Whereas these newer XAVC-L 50-mbit MXFs from the X70 have been written by a new Sony writing and library application that I haven't seen before and it's called

'Sony mem 2.0'

Why Sony has made changes to the writing and library app is unknown. I guess they have a good reason for doing so. There are other significant changes in the file structure of the two MXF flavours such as CABAC and Format_setting_wrapping as can be seen from the attached JPEGs of the file info’s. Until such time as Sony releases the details for these proprietary libraries I don't see any hope of any resolution coming quickly. By all accounts Edius manages to read these files with no issues. Maybe they have a hot line to Sony's software team.

It does make we wonder if this issue is going to appear with the release of all the new XAVC-L MXF capable cameras such as the PXW-X160 / 180 / 200. This could get interesting if it's not sorted pretty quickly.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

Apologies if these questions have been dealt with elsewhere in this gigantic thread; I'm coming in late:

*) Does the camera support 1080p60 in XAVC 50Mbit? The specifications here suggest not:
Sony X70 Page (https://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/micro-xdcam/cat-broadcastcameras/product-PXWX70/)
...while the specifications here suggest so:
Sony X70 PDF Brochure (https://pro.sony.com/bbsc/assetDownloadController/V-2610_PXWX70.pdf?path=Asset Hierarchy$Professional$SEL-yf-generic-153708$SEL-yf-generic-153751SEL-asset-453731.pdf&id=StepID$SEL-asset-453731$original&dimension=original)

Similarly, B&H omits any mention of 1080p60 XAVC. Seems odd that the camera wouldn't inherit all the HD modes of its cheaper siblings, but... *shrug*

Which is it?

*) Is the 4:2:2 XAVC from this camera supported by Premiere CS5.5? I've had no trouble with the 4:2:0 8-bit stuff from the CX900 and AX100, but a line has to be crossed at some point, I suppose. :)

Are you dragging and dropping the files from the camera card to your HDD, or using transfer software like Sony Catalyst Browse- or something else?
Also, within PPro CC, exactly what sequence preset are you using for the XAVC timeline?
I'm finding that I can work with the XAVC footage in PPro CC 2014, but everything seems a bit haphazard & off the cuff.
It's like Sony doesn't really have the infrastructure in place yet for this codec.

Apologies if these questions have been dealt with elsewhere in this gigantic thread; I'm coming in late:

*) Does the camera support 1080p60 in XAVC 50Mbit? The specifications here suggest not:
Sony X70 Page (https://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/micro-xdcam/cat-broadcastcameras/product-PXWX70/)
...while the specifications here suggest so:
Sony X70 PDF Brochure (https://pro.sony.com/bbsc/assetDownloadController/V-2610_PXWX70.pdf?path=Asset Hierarchy$Professional$SEL-yf-generic-153708$SEL-yf-generic-153751SEL-asset-453731.pdf&id=StepID$SEL-asset-453731$original&dimension=original)

Similarly, B&H omits any mention of 1080p60 XAVC. Seems odd that the camera wouldn't inherit all the HD modes of its cheaper siblings, but... *shrug*

Which is it?

*) Is the 4:2:2 XAVC from this camera supported by Premiere CS5.5? I've had no trouble with the 4:2:0 8-bit stuff from the CX900 and AX100, but a line has to be crossed at some point, I suppose. :)

Yes, the X70 has 1080p60 XAVC 50.

I cannot answer the second question.

Yes, the X70 has 1080p60 XAVC 50.

I cannot answer the second question.

Thanks Stephen. I suppose a follow-up would be: Is this 1080p60 4:2:0 XAVC-S in an MP4 wrapper -- like on the AX100 -- or is it 4:2:2 in an MXF wrapper. Or is it something else? I suspect that informs the anwer to the CS5.5 compat question.

Thanks!
Aaron

Thanks Stephen. I suppose a follow-up would be: Is this 1080p60 4:2:0 XAVC-S in an MP4 wrapper -- like on the AX100 -- or is it 4:2:2 in an MXF wrapper. Or is it something else? I suspect that informs the anwer to the CS5.5 compat question.

Thanks!
Aaron

Sony lists this for the recording format:

XAVC HD : MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 4:2:2 Long profile

So my understanding is all the XAVC, regardless of the frame rate will be 4:2:2. The file extensions are .MXF

Sony lists this for the recording format:

XAVC HD : MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 4:2:2 Long profile

So my understanding is all the XAVC, regardless of the frame rate will be 4:2:2. The file extensions are .MXF

Got it. Probably necessary to use something like Catalyst Browse to transcode to ProRes first, in that case. Maybe not the end of the world, but certainly less than ideal.

Thanks again!

I hear TotalCode Studio will work with these files and batch convert to almost any flavour required. TotalCode is a MC product. MC are still writing a bunch of XAVC codec material for Sony. Bet that is what we are waiting for, MC to deliver a codec library to suit this newer XAVC format.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

I hear TotalCode Studio will work with these files and batch convert to almost any flavour required. TotalCode is a MC product. MC are still writing a bunch of XAVC codec material for Sony. Bet that is what we are waiting for, MC to deliver a codec library to suit this newer XAVC format.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

But only for windows 7 PCs, nothing for Macs

Oooh, nothing for Macs? Doesn't sound too good! At this point anyway.

Just had it confirmed by a colleague that MainConcept's TotalCode Studio 3.1 [full version] will handle the XAVC-L 50-mbit 422 10-bit MXF files straight out of the X70 with no problems at all.

It also supports batch conversion from a chosen 'watch folder.' It can also transcode / export to virtually any flavour of codec/format/resolution you desire. It's also pretty quick and the quality is is as you would expect. It will also handle the XAVC-Intra 200+mbit MXF files from the F5/F55 family along with all of Sony's MPEG2 and H264 flavours from the rest of the camera family.

Not too surprising really when you look at it when you see that virtually every plugin made for Sony software including Vegas and the new Catalyst Browse is written by MainConcept.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

Adobe Premiere Pro CC works fine with these XAVC-L files. No problems here.

Edius Pro 7 will play/edit these files ( downloaded from this thread ) just fine too. Identifies files as H.264/AVC ( Long GOP ) 50P, PCM audio 48000hz 24bit, with time code.

Ron Evans

Adobe Premiere Pro CC works fine with these XAVC-L files. No problems here.

That's interesting Gabor. We just tried with the latest Prem Pro CC update on Mac. Only updated in the last 48 hours. PP will see the XAVC-L 422 MXF files but won't play them. Hmm! More investigation required I think.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

Edius Pro 7 will play/edit these files ( downloaded from this thread ) just fine too. Identifies files as H.264/AVC ( Long GOP ) 50P, PCM audio 48000hz 24bit, with time code.

Ron Evans

Yes we were aware that Edius was ahead of`the curve. Strange goings on I think.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

Yes we were aware that Edius was ahead of`the curve. Strange goings on I think.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

IMHO. - They (Edius - Grass Valley(Canopus) have been "ahead of the curve" for a number of years - just don't have the "image" of PremierPro or FCP. Many professionals dismiss the software without looking into its capabilities.

IMHO. - They (Edius - Grass Valley(Canopus) have been "ahead of the curve" for a number of years - just don't have the "image" of PremierPro or FCP. Many professionals dismiss the software without looking into its capabilities.

Edius seems to have its own modular codecs. They're an underdog, which means their marketing department isn't quite as "in bed" with their engineers as Adobe's is with theirs. As much as I like Premiere, I have to say I'm pretty sick of Adobe holding minor codec revisions for ransom. Yeah, yeah... grumble, grumble.

Edius seems to have its own modular codecs. .

Yes Edius has their intermediated codec HQ and HQX but the issue of the X70 files is a decode issue not a source codec issue. I use HQX to go between Edius and Vegas(or Premiere ) . I have CS6 Production Suite,Vegas 12 and Edius 7. I do not use Premiere just Photoshop and AE, main editor is Edius with Vegas12/Sound Forge for audio editing.Edius has the best multicam editor in my opinion and is very fast with native files.

Ron Evans

Edius Pro 7 will play/edit these files ( downloaded from this thread ) just fine too. Identifies files as H.264/AVC ( Long GOP ) 50P, PCM audio 48000hz 24bit, with time code.

Ron Evans

But not for Macs!

On a Mac the free version of Catalyst Browse will play the files and convert them to ProRes. The only real glitch is that it will only transcode them one file at a time.

Once the files are imported into Catalyst, select one of them, choose Transcode to... from the File popup at lower right, set Format to ProRes, set Preset to the flavor of ProRes you want.

Sony is reportedly working on a plugin for direct import into FCPX.

On another forum, Ian Cook from Sony said they certainly are working on direct import of XAVC-L into FCPX. No timeline stated though.

Can someone repost the test footage from the X70? The download link isn't working anymore.

Can someone repost the test footage from the X70? The download link isn't working anymore.

+1. That would be really helpful.

Can someone repost the test footage from the X70? The download link isn't working anymore.

I have them here but it will take a couple of hours to upload them as it's nearly 1.2GB of files. They are being uploaded as I write. Once I have them uploaded I will post a link to them.

There are about fifteen files in total and Gabor Heeres the original poster shot these in XAVC-L 50-mbit 422 10-bit MXF at 50p. If your NLE software won't see them you can convert them with Sony's new Catalyst Browse to XAVC-! files at 230-mbits. A single file at a time only though! They become a lot larger, 4.5 to 5 times larger but until Sony releases the plugin for this new XAVC-L MXF wrapped codec what else can you do.

If you have Edius 7 it will take the original X70 files with no issues. Or you could download MainConcepts 'TotalCode' conversion software [trial version available] as TotalCode sees these files without any difficulties. MainConcept are the people writing the bulk of Sony's NLE plugins so that comes as hardly any surprise.

Professional Video Encoding Software | TotalCode Studio Professional Encoding: MainConcept (http://www.mainconcept.com/products/applications/totalcode-studio.html)

From TotalCode you can do a batch conversion from the 'Watch folder' to XAVC-Intra the 220+mbit I frame codec. Just make sure you select the 1920 x 1080 'XAVC-Intra CBG' preset BEFORE you select the watch folder, which is the folder where you should have the downloaded files. Most NLEs will handle the exported XAVC-I files.

Over the weekend I will have an X70 here on loan to run some tests. I will endeavour to upload some original clips from the camera on Mon or Tues depending on work commitments.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

Fantastic!
A few requests for your testing based on things I haven't seen much of in samples to date...

--a quick test of various Gain levels
--general handheld shots where there is some movement of subject and/or camera. I'm not talking extreme stuff, just something less static than most of the samples so far. This would test stabilization, rolling shutter, the codec, autofocus, etc.

Thanks!

Yes David I will be checking out most of those aspects in manual as well as auto as they are the sort of things that interest me as well.

Gabor's originall X70 XAVC-L files are up if anyone wants to check them out. The download link is:

www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/febb4i

Be back early next week hopefully with footage!

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

Gabor's originall X70 XAVC-L files are up if anyone wants to check them out. The download link is:

www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/febb4i


Thanks for reposting these files Chris!

I can confirm that they work flawlessly on my MacPro running 10.9.5 and the latest version of Premiere Pro CC - the 2014.1 release.

it's like when you don't sleep (ever) when you have your first child : you are tired, red eyes but then he/she smiles once! and you forget everything. I did a gig on a club (my first with the X70) , then 115 clips to pass via catalyst (3 hrs transcoding.. a royal pain!) but then I saw the very first clip on vegas and I forgot everything. I was using a shoulder mount and active stabilization (you lose a bit on the wide end) but I was amazed how stable the footage came out (considering that I was in the middle of the dancing, and dancing myself while shooting. basically a pitch dark scene @30db and "club lighting" : I felt like I had an Alexa instead of a little handycam! Philip Johnston said about this "wee" camera : "Sony have delivered a true jaw dropping picture out of a camcorder that most seasoned professionals would sneer at…till they saw the pictures !". And I agree completely.

anyway until the friends @Sony's will fix this nonsense of unreadable XAVC's if you use catalyst browse you can start the first transcoding and then while working select all the others (one by one) in some sort of queue and go get a coffee (or lunch) and let the queue finish.

on a side note hdmi out and sdi dont' work at the same time (annoying but ehy... look at the size of that little monster! LOL

I have uploaded a few files from my first familiarization run with this camera. There is a combination of shots looking at the different PPs plus various shots with zooms, auto and manual iris functions, rolling shutter quick pans etc. All pretty basic really. These clips were from day one whist I was trying to come up with a PP setting I thought would work to my liking. Mind you the ‘look’ of a camera is a personal thing so some of you might totally disagree with what I have ended up with.
Unfortunately I didn’t have time to do any low light shots or hand held stuff because I was mainly concentrating on settings and adjustment while hooked up to scopes. A lot easier to do that off sticks.

For people on Windows who can't play these X70 the files I suggest downloading the non-installer portable Media Player Classic - Home Cinema 64-bit version v1.7.7 which will play the X70 XAVC files just fine. It must be version 1.7.7.

Download Media Player Classic Home Cinema (64-bit portable) v1.7.7 (open source) - AfterDawn: Software downloads (http://goo.gl/ex0g6v)

Bearing in mind that what I was aiming for was a ready rolled 'look' that requires very little or no grading. A quick shoot, edit and deliver set up in other words. To try and get that look I ended up modifying PP4 for my uses. The changes made were to keep the video in the 16-235 delivery range and to try and achieve a natural looking roll off to the highlights and minimise white clipping whilst at the same time being careful to not crush the black levels too much.

All my initial settings were done on the grey scale and color chip charts using a WFM and Vector. Final tweaks were done outside in the real world while still monitoring everything on the scopes. It’s all still a work in progress. At this point I think I can probably squeeze a little more out of the camera to suit what I’m after. I would probably end up with two or three PPs with variations to cover different scenarios. After two days with the camera I was impressed enough with it that I have just ordered one. I can definitely see some uses for it here.

Likes - Most things.

Dislikes - Battery release not well placed. You cannot reach the release easily when using certain tripod plates. No on-off switch! If you close the flip screen while the viewfinder is in the retracted position the camera shuts down. I did that a couple of times! If the viewfinder is in the extended position you can then shut the flip screen without the camera shutting down. Problem with this though is if you are on sticks and get close to the viewfinder with your arm or body the viewfinder sensor switches off the flip screen. For the life of me I can’t find anything in the menus or manual where this viewfinder auto switch sensor can be overridden. Another weird Sony idea that I hope gets an override solution in an upcoming firmware update.

No standalone charger supplied. HATE having to charge a battery via a camera.

Regarding the download, beware it will be pretty big, about 2.4 GB. I will post the link once it’s all uploaded which will be some hours later today.

In the meantime if anyone doesn’t want a big download but wants to look at some different shots I did the following day I have stuck them together as a smaller MP4. It was all shot XAVC-L 50-mbit 4:2:2 10-bit at 50p with 100th shutter. I purposely chose a high contrast location where I knew I would have extreme whites in full blazing sun along with deep shadows plus some people around for some skin tone colors and exposures. What better place than a marina. Excuse some of the shaky shots at the long end as it was very windy. The clip can be downloaded here.

www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/t9yiwl

Finally many thanks to the good guys, especially Scott at Lemac in Sydney for making the unit available for test. Thanks Scotty.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

Christopher, I love the "ready rolled" concept very much. I shoot news and LIVE shots with my X70, and most people want that DSLR RAW flat look for grading. I have a separate post in the XAVC forum where I am doing extensive vectorwavescoping of my X70, to get the most accurate colors and bestest video right out of the camera.

I found that the STILL color mode is better at adjusting to perfection than the ITU709 version, as you only get two color revisions on the vectorscope using the menu. I took my camera into a professional facility (GRC Electronics, El Cajon) to see if they could do any better than my DSC chart scoping, and after they put the camera on their backlit 3200k calibrated box, it was found it was as good as it could get with the adjustments available. We did find a few things I need to take care of. First, when using preset or manual kelvin WB, the camera had a definite (slight egg shape on the vectorscope) green shift on black balance. Apparently, the push to white performs a black balance adjustment that is not achievable in the other white settings. Good to know. Also, the calibrated 3200k box produced a push to white of 3300k on the Sony. The indoor preset is close enough as to be practically unnoticeable as different in color production.

I am finalizing the DSC chart settings for STILL and ITU709, and the only adjustments that cannot be done on the scope are the COLOR DEPTH ones. The only way to adjust the color depth settings for each color is to point the camera at an object with a shade you want to play with, and adjust up and down until that color appears natural in the EVF/LCD. A cool thing about the depth settings is that you can darken a blue sky, or make green grass pop, independent of other colors or total colorimetry.

Paul

I have uploaded a few files from my first familiarization run with this camera.

For those who want to look directly at camera files here is the link to a few XAVC 50-mbit 50p files from my first encounter with the X70. Beware it is a 2.4GB download

www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/0w5zat

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

No on-off switch! If you close the flip screen while the viewfinder is in the retracted position the camera shuts down. I did that a couple of times! If the viewfinder is in the extended position you can then shut the flip screen without the camera shutting down. Problem with this though is if you are on sticks and get close to the viewfinder with your arm or body the viewfinder sensor switches off the flip screen. For the life of me I can’t find anything in the menus or manual where this viewfinder auto switch sensor can be overridden. Another weird Sony idea that I hope gets an override solution in an upcoming firmware update.


I don't have my X70 in hand yet, but the manual seems to indicate there is a POWER button, although it does not show where that is. Also, it would be good to point out that the camera will not shut down while it is recording, regardless of the position of the LCD or viewfinder, at least that is what the manual says on page 24:


"When recording movies or when connected to another device via USB, the camcorder does not turn off even if the LCD screen is closed and the viewfinder is returned to its original position."

The on/off button is under the flip screen, same as the 100/900. You can If needed flip the panel facing outward and the camera will stay on, although that leaves the shiny side susceptible to damage.

One thing I found very irritating about my X70, is that if you have the LCD open, and the EVF pulled out, the picture will swap back and forth every couple of seconds between the two. In other words, you CANNOT use the EVF with LCD open, or use the LCD with the EVF pulled out. At least that has been my experience with it operating at night.

Paul

but the manual seems to indicate there is a POWER button

Strictly speaking you are right.

There is an ON / STANDBY button in behind the flip screen that enables you to turn the camera on from stone cold dead. It still doesn't overcome the problem that if the viewfinder is in the retracted OFF position and you close the flip screen the camera will power down to standby. If the viewfinder is extended it is then in the ON position. The problem is that the viewfinder auto switching sensor is now alive with the viewfinder on. Wave your hand or anything close to the viewfinder or the back of the camera for that matter and the flip screen turns off until whatever activated the eyepiece sensor has been removed, i.e. your body or arm. Remove whatever activated the sensor and then the flip screen comes alive and will stay alive until such time as something comes close to the viewfinder or back of the camera again. Should you want to keep the camera on and shut the flip screen you must turn the viewfinder ON. If the viewfinder is retracted in the OFF position and you shut the flip screen the camera powers down to standby.

I just found it a bit annoying to have to remember to pull out the viewfinder every time I wanted to shut the screen but not turn power down the camera when I moved the sticks to a new location. It's just a habit of mine to close screens when picking up camera and sticks in one go. Less likelihood of damaging the screen. As Paul points out it is very annoying to have the screen keep turning on and off if you move around behind the camera with the viewfinder switched on. As yet I have discovered no way of bypassing the viewfinder auto sensor in the menu. There again it could be me totally missing a menu setting but I don't think so,

This is probably my major complaint operationally, apart from everything being so small, even for my average sized hands. Like the ND switch being very easy to accidentally overshoot with when selecting an ND because it has very firm detent positions and a very short throw.

Notwithstanding it's a great little camera and punches / shoots well above its weight. For that price / performance / feature ratio there is little to compare. I look forward to getting one because I had forgotten what joy is was to move around various locations with such a small lightweight kit.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

You say standby by but is it really standby? Once the screen is shut I think the power is off. It just seems to power up very quickly, unlike my old HMC150 which had a standby mode to avoid that problem but then drained the battery steadily until it was turned off properly

Mike I can't test that out as the camera has gone back to the dealer but from memory if you pushed the button in it shut down completely. If you just shut the screen it went into standby hence the quick start on opening the screen. First time up I had to turn the camera on with that button which in the manual is called ON / STANDBY.

Will find out for sure when mine arrives I guess!

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

Just checking- the SDI output on the X70 is a female connector, so you would need a regular size male SDI cable to connect to that?

I am curious because when using, say the Atomos Samurai and the X70, I think you would want a male SDI to male mini-SDI to make the connection between the two devices, but the cables that Atomos sells for this purpose are only male on the mini end of the connector- Atomos 2 x 9" SDI Cables for Samurai Recorder ATOMCAB001 (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/869661-REG/Atomos_atomscab001_2_Samurai_SDI_Cables.html/prm/alsVwDtl)

So using that would require another male-male SDI cable for the camera to connect, right?

Mike I can't test that out as the camera has gone back to the dealer but from memory if you pushed the button in it shut down completely. If you just shut the screen it went into standby hence the quick start on opening the screen. First time up I had to turn the camera on with that button which in the manual is called ON / STANDBY.

Will find out for sure when mine arrives I guess!

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney
Chris,
The handbook says

"To turn off the power
Close the LCD screen, if the viewfinder is extended return it to it's original position
You can also turn off the power by pressing the POWER button""

I don't use the power button often and have not seen any battery drain overnight when simply shutting down the LCD or viwefinder so my guess is that it simply powers up quickly, which is good
Cheers
Mike

I've been playing a bit with the downloadable files - a bit frustrating. Catalyst Browse is very sluggish, and some of the clips won't play back or convert. I'm almost ready to get the camera, but as a FCPX user I'll have to shoot AVCHD until there is a plugin I'm afraid.

One thing I did notice that I'd not seen mentioned - Catalyst Browse reports the XAVC clips as 24 bit audio, not 16. That's a nice extra feature I wasn't expecting.

Yeah David, that is my plan, hopefully it won't be to long. I'm on Vegas though and my X70 should be here today.....can't wait!

Compatibility for Vegas and other NLEs rumoured to be December. With Vegas I would imagine it will be a new build version of 13.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

One thing I've noticed, playing with the files Chris posted, is how much you can push colour grading. I sometimes like to desaturate, stretch and crush regions of the tonal curve to get various "film noir" looks etc (comes from having a stills background with 14-bit raw to mess with). This is barely possible with 8-bit AVC of course, before banding artifacts appear. I was mildly skeptical of the value of 10-bit XAVC-L in-camera with a bandwidth of only 50Mb/s. Like a weak Martini in a big glass perhaps. But I've been torturing this footage all morning and it holds-up really well. I'm actually very excited about this aspect of the X70. Having considered getting an external recorder there's now much less urgency.